US regulators have advanced a number of coal lease sales in Montana, Utah and Alabama.
The US Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on 29 August issued a detailed statement of its coal lease sale in Big Horn County, Montana. The 1,262-acre tract is adjacent to Navajo Transitional Energy's Spring Creek mine has an estimated 167.5mn short tons (152mn metric tonnes) of recoverable coal, which is projected to extend the mine's operation through 2051. The agency will hold the lease sale on 6 October, with sealed bids to be submitted by 3 October.
Spring Creek's mine produced 5.21mn st of coal in January-June, down by 12pc from a year earlier, data from the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) show.
In Emery County, Utah, BLM is offering about 120 acres known as the Little Eccles Tract, containing an estimated 1.29mn st of recoverable coal, the agency said Tuesday. Wolverine subsidiary Canyon Fuel has applied to lease the Little Eccles area near its Skyline mine, which produced 1.46mn st of coal in the first half of this year, up by 20pc from a year earlier, according to MSHA data. Written comments on the fair market value and maximum economic recovery must be received by 10 September. The sale will be held on 1 October, and sealed bids must be submitted by that day.
BLM will also offer two leases in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. In June, metallurgical coal miner Warrior Met Coal submitted its applications to extend operations of its Mine No. 4 and Blue Creek Mine No. 1 in Alabama. The proposed lease area for the applications covers about 14,050 acres and contain an estimated 53mn st of recoverable metallurgical coal. The sale is scheduled on 30 September. The leases are projected to extend Mine No. 4 operation by 7 years, and Blue Creek Mine's by 13 years.
The output from Mine No. 4 decreased to 1.4mn st in January-June, down by 4pc on the year, MSHA data show. First metallurgical coal from Blue Creek was extracted in the July-September 2024. In the first six months of this year the mine produced 598,976st. Warrior plans to start a longwall production at this facility no later than the second quarter of 2026.
